Satirist sailed without an even keel

In all sudden deaths, the true shock of absence comes when the person fails to appear where most expected.

For readers of The Australian Financial Review, this will come when they next turn to the back page of their newspaper, seeking a haven from heavy duty financial news, hoping to find out just who Peter Ruehl has decided to spear.

With his irreverent wit and his “take no prisoners" approach to politics, to life and to whatever else happened to take his fancy – lazy teachers, trash music, left-leaning lunatics, even his family on occasions – Ruehl’s satire could always generate a laugh or a grunt of disapproval. Sadly, Peter died suddenly at his home on Monday, aged just 64. He has written his last column for the Financial Review. And in true Ruehl style, it was mocking, derisive, disrespectful – and very funny.

His target? The Greens and more specifically the party’s new upper house member in the NSW Parliament and her anti-Israel stance.

“In case the Coalition didn’t notice, especially the branch office in NSW,
Lee Rhiannon
is a gift. You don’t often have a mental cupcake fall into your lap right after you’ve already won by a landslide, but Rhiannon is delivering big time.

“You don’t frequently get somebody who’s so enthusiastically nuts and proud of it."

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It was vintage Ruehl. A difficult and controversial subject, deftly dealt with, and absolutely no doubt about where Ruehl stood on the issue. Take it or leave it.

He would have been delighted that the column sparked fierce debate in the Letters pages. He was dubbed a Stalinist by one angry reader; to which another replied that the letter in question was “totally disingenuous, absurd and ironically highlights Ruehl’s point".

Over nearly a quarter of a century, Peter delighted and infuriated readers with his satirical columns. He had the audacity, as an American, to poke fun at our politicians, our business leaders and our way of life.

But he didn’t spare Americans, either. “I mean, you chuck 300 million whites with backgrounds from every corner of Europe, blacks, Indians, Eskimos, native Hawaiians, Cajuns, Chicanos, northerners, southerners and Midwesterners into one country and what do you expect you’ll get? Tasmania? Plus, we’ve got California to deal with," Ruehl wrote in his inimitable style.

Yet this was a career he fell into almost by accident – with the patronage of two veteran newspapermen, Alan Kohler and Greg Hywood.

Ruehl was born in New York City in 1947, to Vincent and Mercedes Ruehl. Vin was an FBI agent and Mercedes, known as Micky, was the extrovert of the family, of Cuban descent. They had two children, Peter and Mercedes – now a well-known actress and of whom Peter was extremely proud. Mercedes won both an Oscar and a Tony award for her performances.

Peter and Mercedes were raised in Washington DC, after Vin was transferred there, and Peter was educated by the Jesuits at Gonzaga College. He attended the University of Maryland and then trained as a journalist at the Annapolis Capital. It was in Annapolis, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where Ruehl hung out at Maloney’s Bar with his friend Otis (real name John). Maloney and Otis were to later appear as characters in scores, perhaps even hundreds, of his columns.

He later moved on to the prestigious Baltimore Sun newspaper and was covering the 1983 America’s Cup in Perth – the one where
Alan Bond
took home the prize – when he met Australian journalist Jennifer Hewett.

Hewett, now a prominent political commentator with The Australian, was then The Sydney Morning Herald correspondent in Washington. They married in 1984 and two years later, Jenny convinced Peter to move to Australia, to her home town of Perth. It helped that the America’s Cup defence was to be staged in Perth the following year. Peter was passionate about sailing and he began his career at the Financial Review covering the run-up to the Cup, then the event itself. It was after the Cup was run, and Australia lost, that Ruehl began his career as a columnist.

“I remember when he wrote his first political column and he asked me to have a glance over it," Jenny recalled yesterday. “This was after he had asked me who Gough Whitlam was."

Jenny was prevaricating, pointing out problems, when the editors, Alan Kohler and Greg Hywood, appeared at the door of Peter’s office and said it was outstanding. “He never asked my opinion on a political column again," Jenny said.

Peter Ruehl became an overnight sensation – at least with Financial Review readers.

Roger Johnstone, the acting chief executive of the Financial Review Group, described Ruehl as “one of a kind in Australian journalism".

“When he began his column in 1987 he set the establishment and the media back on its heels," Johnstone said. “His blunt American assessment of all things Australian, particularly in the political arena, immediately brought him a dedicated and loyal audience.

“His humorous and irreverent approach to sacred cows, seen through the eyes of a cast of colourful US characters usually found in bars, won him wide appeal with both young and older readers. He will be greatly missed."

Peter was proudly American but loved living in Australia and raising his family here. When dual citizenship became possible (under the Rupert Murdoch amendment) Peter decided to take it up.

He wrote about it in his column in 1996. (This column was published in The Daily Telegraph where Peter wrote a syndicated column for five years before being coaxed back to the Financial Review in 1999.)

“For a country that prides itself on having a little class, you folks aren’t too picky about who joins the club," Ruehl wrote.

“The other day, under the watchful eyes of about 12 friends and, within two hours, drunks, I became an Australian citizen.

“Now will somebody please explain to me whether you’re supposed to use Vegemite as an engine lubricant or is it for your underarms?"

The persona that Peter portrayed in his columns – a hard-drinking, music-loving cynic with a chaotic family life – was quite different to the Peter Ruehl that his friends and family knew. He was a devoted father to his three children, Mercedes, John and Tom. He could be quite an introvert. He worked from his home in the Sydney beachside suburb of Clovelly. His family and his writing dominated his life. His favourite afternoon ritual was a run along Coogee Beach, followed by a shower and a relaxing gin and tonic.

Peter was passionate about music, however, and one of his favourite artists was Jimmy Buffett, who toured Australia recently. His friend, Geoff Hill, went along to the concert with him. “Peter had every LP and every CD that Jimmy Buffett ever produced," Hill recalled yesterday. “He would ring up and say ‘Have you got the latest’. I think he identified with Buffett’s three main characteristics – a love of sailing, a significant interest in alcohol and a high degree of irreverence."